At the United Nations General Assembly, Secretary of State Antony Blinken talked with a top Chinese official. This meeting was part of President Joe Biden’s plan to set up a stable base for the tough fight with China.
On September 18, 2023, in New York City, Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a meeting with Han Zheng, Vice President of China. (Source: Washington Examiner)
Global Security Issues Discussed at United Nations General Assembly
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the purpose of the meeting was to continue talking about important problems that both countries had already talked about at a higher level. The goal was to keep contact going and show how well their countries were getting along. It’s always important to keep interactions that are fair and healthy.
Two days before the United Nations General Assembly meeting, the top diplomat from China, Wang Yi, and the national security advisor from the White House, Jake Sullivan, met in Malta. Since Wang chose to go to a big event in Moscow, Blinken was paired with a less senior counterpart on Monday as talks between the two administrations continued. Xi Jinping wasn’t there, but Wang was China’s general secretary at the time.
“The two sides discussed key issues in the U.S.-China bilateral relationship, global and regional security issues, Russia’s war against Ukraine, and cross-Strait issues, among other topics,” Sullivan’s staff said after his Saturday encounter. “The US stressed Taiwan Strait peace and stability. The two sides agreed to maintain this strategic communication channel and hold further high-level interaction and consultations in crucial areas between the US and China in the coming months.”
Beijing saw Sullivan’s trip as a chance for the two leaders to meet this fall. Renmin University professor Wang Yiwei told the South China Morning Post, “Many are worried that any hope of a Xi-Biden meeting has been dashed.” The chat between Wang Yi and Sullivan was mostly to set the stage for a meeting between the leaders.
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Face to Face Diplomacy
Xi might see Biden in November at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in San Francisco if he attends, but his absence from the G20 summit in India casts doubt on his involvement. In early September, a Chinese intelligence agency signaled that “the United States needs to show enough sincerity” to convince Xi to travel. Han reaffirmed that point on Monday.
Meanwhile, Chinese Communist forces have boosted their military activities surrounding Taiwan, the island democracy Beijing wants to conquer. “Let me say that Taiwan is part of China’s territory,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Monday concerning the increasing military operations around Taiwan. No ‘median line’ exists in the Taiwan Strait.” After then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) visited Taipei last year, Chinese officials removed the decades-old unofficial barrier. The US maintains cordial unofficial relations with its former treaty ally, bolstered recently by Biden and other democratic powers’ warnings that a Taiwan war would be disastrous.
Blinken noted that from the United sides’ point of view, the most effective way to deal with areas in which both sides disagree and seek areas of collaboration is through face-to-face diplomacy. People expect that the officials will manage their interaction with each other in a responsible manner.
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